Congressman Lamar Smith sells out Internet free speech with SOPA
If we generally have the best politicians money can buy representing us in Congress, the fine people in Congressman Lamar Smith’s district (TX-21) got shortchanged somehow. For you see, Lamar decided to represent big Hollywood interests, such as the MPAA and RIAA, instead of his constituents back home in Texas.
Sadly, the village idiot is wreaking havoc by sponsoring the Stop Online Piracy Act a.k.a. SOPA. Despite the name, the bill has very little to do with protecting piracy and everything to do with protecting the entertainment industry by applying draconian law to stop technology. If this were the late 19th Century, Congressman Lamar Smith would be sponsoring something equally stupid on behalf of buggy makers in order to kill the auto industry.
Although we’ll be discussing SOPA and the congressman in greater detail here in the coming days, what’s important to know is that his bill, if it became law, would censor the Internet, crush First Amendment free speech rights, and turn intellectual property law into a chaotic mess to boot.
It is important to note that Congressman Lamar Smith was a lawyer before becoming a politician. One finds it hard to believe that he was playing hooky on the quadrangle as a 1L on the day his Con Law I class covered the First Amendment at Southern Methodist University School of Law. Although one can easily see him sleeping in the stacks at Underwood Law Library instead of attending legal ethics classes.
SOPA must be defeated, Congressman Smith must either retire or be thrown out of Congress by the voters, and let’s hope that he isn’t able to either practice law or become a lobbyist for his Hollywood buddies.
